Office makes an annoying clicking sound all the time now

Anonymous
2016-08-07T19:14:49+00:00

Hi, I have a weird issue.  Recently, every time I open a Word, Excel, or other Office document, it persistently makes a "click" sound periodically in the background.  The sound is the same sound that Windows makes when you open a folder when browsing My Documents, for example.  Despite the fact that the click sound happens all the time, nothing appears to be happening in Word.

One surefire way to get it to happen: open the File tab.  When I open the File tab from the Home tab, it always makes a "click" sound as if it's doing something, but I don't know what it's doing.  This happens in Word, Excel, and every other app I've tried.  Also, if I open a Word document and then ALT-TAB to an internet browser, and then come back to the Word document in a few minutes, it makes that click sound again.  

I recently upgraded my Office suite.  Is that the reason?  Does anyone know how to get rid of it?  It's just really annoying.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2018-10-12T14:13:12+00:00

Just a suggestion, try signing out and back in to your Microsoft Office account.  I was having the same incessant clicking sound issue and after I signed out and back in, the clicking went away.  It had to deal with the fact that my user wasn't properly signed in and I had an exclamation mark next to my name in the top right area of MS Word/Excel/etc.  After I signed in again, the exclamation mark went away, and so did the clicking.

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HansV 462.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2016-08-07T19:53:59+00:00

Select File > Options.

Click on Advanced in the navigation pane on the left hand side.

Scroll down to the General section.

Make sure that the check box "Provide feedback with sound" is clear (not ticked).

Click OK.

Does that help?

Moderator edit: Note that this option is now located at File | Options | Ease of Access.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-07-09T05:46:04+00:00

    Thanks for that, saved my sanity. For me it was "Start Navigation".

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-11T09:19:54+00:00

    Info and replies in this post helped for me.  Here is what I found:  At some point, the account that shows at the top right side of my Word application changed to my old work account. I'm not sure why - but it was after some automatic upgrade to Windows a couple of months ago.  Another thing that was funny then was that my "bookmarked" documents that show at the top when I choose "open file" had changed - I did not know why.  When I clicked on my name at the top right of work and chose account, it showed my old work account which was disabled.  Going back to the File menu, and choosing Account/Switch account - let me change to my real account.  Problem solved.  I hope this helps someone else.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-05-07T16:41:23+00:00

    In the process of logging in to the chat room, I had to update my password, which, once I did that, the clicking stopped.  It does not show that my account required any attention so i never pulled up my account to look at it.  None the less, it stopped.

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